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August 30th, 2008
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Underneath the skin

Langhans comes of age with a powerful retrospective
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
April 23rd, 2008 issue

Photo copyright M. Ishiuchi
Ishiuchi finds life stories in close-up studies of women's hands and feet.
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Miyako Ishiuchi: Photographs 1976?2005


at Langhans Gallery Prague Ends June 1. Vodičkova 37, Prague 1-New Town. Open Tues.-Sun. 1-7 p.m
Langhans Galerie Praha is commemorating its five-year anniversary with a retrospective of the Japanese photographer Miyako Ishiuchi. It is the first such show in Europe for this artist, who gained wider attention internationally after her photo series “Mother’s” was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2005.
The mostly black-and-white photos by Ishiuchi (born in 1947) can be described, above all, as beautifully haunted with memories — both personal and anonymous — and full of secrets and long-forgotten times, both good and bad. One of her main territories of exploration is the human skin.
In her first series of photos on the gallery’s ground floor, there are six large extreme close-ups (along with three oddly placed smaller pictures) of aged skin. In the series “1906 to the Skin” (1991–93), the photos of 85-year-old master Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno are arresting, if occasionally unsettling, in their stark portrayal of the aging process. Framed in elegant silver-painted wooden frames, these black-and-white shots capture the essence of life — that which holds us together till the end, our creviced and withered skin.
Downstairs, there are selected photos from earlier in Ishiuchi’s career. Her series “Apartment” (1977–78) reveals an underclass in Japan that foreigners hardly ever see. Taken on the island of Yokosuka, where Ishiuchi grew up, these photos raise questions about how much U.S. military bases really do to boost local economies. Moreover, the squalid one-room living quarters of this “invisible” population were taken during the strongest years of Japan’s so-called economic boom.
In the same room, there are selected works from Ishiuchi’s series “Endless Nights” (1978–80), her last devoted to Yokosuka. They depict a long-abandoned brothel, destroyed on the inside, though the remaining ornate details of the ceilings and columns seem to retain secrets of the immediate postwar era and the U.S. military occupation.
Upstairs, the series “1.9.4.7.” (1988–89) offers a return to the wondrous tenacity of the human body, and particularly the skin. Isiuchi photographed women born the same year as herself, intending to include their faces as portraits, but later deciding to focus on their hands and especially their feet. “I felt that the feet, precisely because they stubbornly tread the earth while supporting the rest of the body, was where one’s true character lay hidden,” Ishiuchi says.
In a separate room on the same floor, there are photos from the series “Yokosuka Story” (1976–77), which was the artist’s first step in photography after studying textile design at the renowned Tama Art University (she left the program without graduating). Isiuchi made these after returning home to the place she once felt was “a land best forgotten,” and in the process rediscovered a hidden beauty there.
In this room, as throughout the entire exhibition, there is a creative arrangement of photos that intentionally hides some of the most subtle works. When these smaller images are finally noticed, they can be especially resonant in the space.
The works from “Yokosuka Story” are grainy, and the scenes are saturated with shadows and solitude. U.S. battleships still rest in the harbor, though the shops offering services for military personnel are deserted and have fallen into ruin. It becomes clear that “Yokosuka Story” is Ishiuchi’s own story — her own shadows and memories begin here, and are followed up in the other series devoted to her home.
The series “Mother’s” begins on the stairway of the gallery, and is the centerpiece of the show. Ishiuchi began this series in the last year of her mother’s life, taking close-ups of her body. Images include a naked breast, the long scar of what looks to be a Caesarean section, and the skin of an arm and armpit.
Some of these are alarming in their frankness, and made even more potent shown beside images of items belonging to her mother, including transparent nightgowns and lipsticks. Ishiuchi shot these highly personal items only after her mother died, after finding it impossible to throw them away until she had at least photographed them, since they retained so much of her mother’s aura.
Only this series includes a few color photographs, which stand out like red flags (especially the sexy red and turquoise-blue lipsticks), though they are actually modest and tenderly personal gestures. Overall, Ishiuchi’s delicate openness is unmatched, and this retrospective at Langhans Galerie is perhaps the best exhibition in the gallery’s five-year history.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (23/04/2008):

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